Topless Club Faces Fight At City Hall North Side Neighbors Circulate Petitions

Topless dancing and kids don’t mix, and Denise Luders wants to make sure they stay well separated.

Last November, Luders and her husband, Dale, opened Kidsplay, an indoor recreation center for kids at 233 E. Lyons.

Just a block away, a businessman now wants to buy a Moose Lodge for use as an adult entertainment club with topless dancing.

The proposed club site at 6363 N. Lidgerwood is also across from the Eagles Ice-A-Rena and around the corner from Tidyman’s and a movie theater.

“We’re horrified at the thought of a topless bar going in across the street,” said Luders. “We’re horrified at the type of people a place like that could attract.”

Luders is one of a dozen neighborhood residents and groups, including Tidyman’s and Kmart, who are circulating petitions in opposition to the topless dance club. Even Moose Lodge No. 161 is having second thoughts about the sale, as a manager said they didn’t know what the buyers intended.

“We weren’t looking to sell,” said Greg Mason, a building manager. “The guy just came around and made an offer.”

Club officials accepted, but said any sale offer was contingent on several factors, including finding another site and a vote of the 700 members.

With all the controversy over the proposal, such a vote is not likely to meet with approval.

“To put it mildly, this is not the type of operator the Moose Lodge would like to be associated with,” said Mason. “For all practical purposes, any talk of a sale is probably dead.”

Nevertheless, several dozen people are expected to testify against the proposal to a city hearing examiner at a 9 a.m. City Hall hearing.

The attorney representing prospective owner Timothy D. Cameron said the image most opponents have of an adult entertainment club is seedy and downscale. Cameron wants to operate a high-class facility that would attract business people and professionals, said attorney Brian Butler.

Butler said there will be valet parking and private security on the site. No alcohol will be served, he added.

“We plan to do everything we can to be a great neighbor,” Butler said.

This morning’s hearing will focus on a request for a variance to a 1988 city ordinance mandating a 750-foot distance between adult entertainment facilities and other uses, including schools, day-care, churches, playgrounds and other adult entertainment.

The proposal falls short of that distance on several sides.

City Hearing Examiner Gregg Smith has ruled previously that he has no authority to override the 1988 city ordinance.

City Planner Steve Haynes has also come out against the variance, saying the backers ought to search for a property that meets the guidelines, rather than change them.

“I would contend that searching for a properly distanced location is not overly burdensome,” wrote Haynes in his staff report.